Spend The Weekend With All of Xavier Dolan’s Films (and Dolan Himself) at the MoMA

Spend The Weekend With All of Xavier Dolan's Films (and Dolan Himself) at the MoMA

For the first time, all three of Quebecois wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s films will be screening in a U.S. theater. This weekend, the Museum of Modern Art will screen Dolan’s “I Killed My Mother,” “Heartbeats” and “Laurence Anyways” as part of their Canadian Front series MoMA presents annually with Telefilm Canada (the screenings of “Mother” are part of that 2009 film’s long-awaited U.S. theatrical release).

Dolan himself will be in town Monday evening for an hour long conversation with both MoMA’s Rajendra Roy and Indiewire’s Peter Knegt to discuss past work and
filmic inspirations, and to present an excerpt from his current project,
“Tom à la ferme.”

J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother)2009. Canada. Directed by Xavier Dolan. Dolan wrote, directed, and stars in this semi-autobiographical chronicle of the tumultuous rapport between 16-year-old Hubert and his mother (Anne Dorval). Hubert holds his mother in endless contempt—she is outdated and kitsch, she misunderstands him—and seeks refuge in art classes and his boyfriend, Antonin. From slammed doors to embraces, Dolan and Dorval masterfully capture the raw, love-hate intensity of filial relationships that eats away at mother and son. A hit at New Directors/New Films 2010, this never-released gem returns to MoMA for a weeklong run. 96 min.

Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats)2010. Canada. Directed by Xavier Dolan. Best friends Francis and Marie are inseparable—until they both fall for Nicholas, a handsome newcomer. As the trio spends their days and nights together, the two friends passive-aggressively vie for Nicholas’s attention and analyze his every gesture. Heartbeats establishes Dolan’s visual lexicon, with highly stylized slow-motion scenes and riffs on a generation of classic cool; Marie is a doe-eyed, cigarette-poised Audrey Hepburn, and Francis, who keeps a stick-figure tally of his misfortunes in romance, is a melancholy James Dean. Humorous and heartbreaking, the emotional three-way is a contemporary update on Jules and Jim, with all the neuroses of the 21st century. 101 min.

Monday, March 18, 2013, 4:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1

Laurence Anyways 2012. Canada. Directed by Xavier Dolan. Dolan’s third feature is the vivid, highly orchestrated saga of Laurence and Fred, a bohemian couple living in Montreal. Their electric relationship is tested when Laurence confesses he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. While Fred initially supports her partner’s transformation, she succumbs to family and societal pressures and ends the affair. What ensues is the decade-long drama of a couple that cannot live together or survive apart. Laurence Anyways is the first of Dolan’s films in which the director does not act. Rather, he focuses on guiding Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye, and Monia Chokri (some of whom appear in his first two films) in stunning performances that propel the gritty, textured storytelling that has become his signature. This searing meditation on gender, love, and self-fulfillment establishes Dolan as one of today’s most exciting young auteurs. 161 min.

Sunday, March 17, 2013, 5:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1

An Evening with Xavier DolanSince his 2009 feature debut, J’ai tué ma mere, which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in, Xavier Dolan (Canadian, b. 1989) has been acclaimed as the wunderkind of Canadian cinema. Dolan’s films investigate the grit and passion of contemporary relationships against the backdrop of urban life, often in Dolan’s hometown of Montreal. In conjunction with Canadian Front 2013, Dolan joins Rajendra Roy and Indiewire’s Peter Knegt to discuss past work and filmic inspirations, and to present an excerpt from his current project, Tom à la ferme.